greetings from Santa Cruz, CA

[the nerve]

Hey guys. I'm new to these forums and relatively new to diving. I guess I'll introduce myself here.

I've done one dive in Hawaii, 5 dives in Monterey for my OW cert, and 4 dives at Catalina Island. During the next two weeks I'll be getting my AOW cert at Lake Tahoe and Monterey. Eventually I hope to complete my rescue diver cert, then get my scientific diving certification at UCSC. Hopefully next year I'll get an opportunity to get some good diving in at the Great Barrier Reef, if I'm lucky enough to do some marine biology research there.

I am a marine biology major at UCSC, and I love wildlife and wild ecosystems, which is why I love diving and marine bio. I'm especially looking forward to swimming with my first sharks. Never seen a wild shark before, although if I run into one around here, it'll most likely be a harmless leopard or a great white. I'm hoping for the second. lol.

I also enjoy some land based activities like hiking, snowboarding, guitar, and keeping reptiles...

Well I hope to get to know some of you better, who knows, I might be diving with one of you someday.

 

[aquagal]

Welcome, nice to have another Santa Cruz local on board.

See you in the Bay.

L.

 

[Chadwick]

How's Catalina these days? How was the visibility? I haven't been there since about '83.

 

[the nerve]

Vis was OK, some dives better than others... I'd say between 15-25 feet. Although I didn't pay much attention I was too busy looking at all the life right in my face.

I saw a giant sea bass though, that was cool. But vis was crap so I didn't really get a good look at it. Same with the bat ray I saw. Both of those were at Italian gardens.